A good friend of mine—we’ll call him Steve—graduated from seminary 40 years ago. He pastored at a church in Colorado for four years, then left the ministry, never to pastor again. Instead he went into secular work. While he enjoyed that career, I’ve often wondered what might have been. This man is a genius and

By Bob Wilkin Over the course of ten years, our annual conference had been growing dramatically. Our first conference had 35 attendees. In 2006, our 11thconference, we had 350, a tenfold increase. One year later, at the 2007 annual GES conference, we had 160 attendees. In the ten years since then our attendance has ranged

In February of 1982 I was hired to be the pastor of a very small (25 people) Bible church in the Dallas area. I pastored that church as I finished the master’s program at DTS and then during my doctoral work. Sharon and I went to Arkansas for a week of vacation the last week

On January 1, 1985 I was asked by the elders of my church to resign as pastor, effective immediately. I did as they asked and wrote a nice resignation letter. Through a strange series of events, Sharon and I ended up going back to that same Bible church four years later. After a time I

Allen Rea, a pastor in Georgia, suggested that the repetition of “found” is a play on words by John. I love that suggestion. Notice how it brings the verse alive: “[Andrew] first found his own brother Simon [= Peter], and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated, the Christ).”[1] There are

In June of 1986 I was hired by Multnomah Bible College to teach Greek and Bible. This required a big move from east Texas. We packed all our furniture into a U Haul truck and with the help of Sharon’s parents, Graham and Camille, moved to Oregon. We found the best place to live, Lake

The other day I was talking with Mark and Bethany. They’ve worked here for many years. I mentioned that Zane Hodges had never worked for GES and they were surprised. I realize I need to clarify Zane’s involvement for all who enjoy our ministry. I founded GES in June of 1986. I have headed the

When I was in my late twenties I read articles and books on finances and investing. Most of the authors pointed out that if you could save just $2,000 per year for 10 years when you were 25 and then add nothing to it you’d have more money at age 65 than if you saved

The year was 1989. I had just finished presenting a paper on repentance at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in San Diego, CA. I was near the end of the question and answer time. There were several professors and pastors from John MacArthur’s school and church in my session. One of them